A few years back, the military came up with the bright idea of swapping out the nuclear warheads on some of America’s land- and sea-based ballistic missiles for conventional explosives, transforming city-obliterating rockets into so-called “Prompt Global Strike” systems capable of taking out terrorist targets anywhere in the world just hours from the word “go.” There was just one problem: The “strike-anywhere” missile was a nightmare for diplomats and lawmakers. Upon launch, a non-nuclear ballistic missiles looks the same as a nuke to other nations’ radars. There was no way Russia, China or anyone else would know that America was firing a non-nuclear missile to take out a terrorist camp — as opposed to, say, starting World War III on a whim.
Proposals that the United States install special communications channels to alert nuclear powers in advance of any non-nuclear launch pretty much undermined the whole “prompt” aspect of the weapon.
Now the Air Force thinks it has a solution that makes everyone — Congress, the State Department and the Pentagon — happy. The flying branch wants to ditch the ballistic missile aspect of Prompt Global Strike and replace it with a hypersonic glider air-launched from a heavy bomber, like any of the Air Force’s current non-nuclear cruise missiles. That way nobody can mistake the weapon for a nuke.
Even though the prototype crashed during its first test flight last year, the Air Force is eying the Mach-20 Falcon Hypersonic Test Vehicle as the basis for the new strike missile. “Our focus is on boost-glide capabilities, including the Hypersonic Technology Vehicle concept,” Maj. Gen. David Scott said this week. “We have no plans for conventionally-armed sea-based missiles such as a [Navy] Conventional Trident modification or conventionally-armed ICBMs.”
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